FUTURE DEVELOPMENT 207 



the British Isles. The great problem that is being dis- 

 cussed at present is how to increase the amount of wheat 

 without decreasing the supply of meat; but by convert- 

 ing grass land into arable land, the amount of meat 

 produced need not be decreased. Which farms will pay 

 best to produce grain and which to produce meat will 

 depend upon the situation, and there is little doubt that 

 one of the chief difficulties in inducing changes in the 

 general farming of the country lies in the fact that what 

 is true for the country as a whole is not necessarily true for 

 the individual farmer, and that, whilst it could be shown 

 readily enough in statistics that ploughing up grass land will 

 not decrease the meat, but will increase the bread, yet from 

 the point of view of the farmer, there will often be a need for 

 him to alter his system on lines which do not correspond 

 with those of the average of the country. If, however, 

 more wheat is grown in the British Isles, less wheat must 

 certainly be imported. No doubt there would be a tendency 

 to restrict those imports from foreign countries, as far as 

 possible, but it is difficult to see how this decrease could be 

 prevented from affecting India and the Colonies. It is, 

 therefore, essential that each section of the British Empire 

 should be made more self-contained. 



In the statement that only one-fifth of the wheat and 

 wheat flour are produced at home, reference, of course, is 

 made to pre-war conditions . Probably to any such estimates 

 at least 20 per cent, could be added by milling the wheat, 

 so as to avoid losing the outer nutritious part of the wheat 

 grain, and another 10 per cent, could be added by the use 

 of barley, without in any way causing inconvenience, but, 

 on the contrary, producing a better loaf than ever. The 

 attempts to introduce other grains have, however, in practice 

 not proved very successful. The chief part of this difficulty 

 lies in the fact that the starch grains of the different cereals 

 have different temperatures of gelatinization, and, there- 

 fore, the time needed for cooking also differs. This difficulty 

 is likely to be still further increased if potato flour is used 

 in addition, since the gelatinizing temperature of potato 



